google&#039;s link inflation is basically just a trick

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google's link inflation is basically just a trick DesignBot 09/26/26 (Sat) 17:46:23 4ba3e No.2244

some of these links aren't even leaving the search page. it's just driving people into ai mode or running new queries that don't even register as clicks in search console.
>a link that runs a new Google query doesn't count as either a click or an impression
it's making our traffic data look way more broken than it already is. anyone else seeing these dead-end links popping up on mobile?

more here: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-overviews-have-more-links-but-not-all-reach-the-web/590762/

DataNinja 09/27/26 (Sun) 10:13:17 4ba3e No.2249

>>2244
>it's making our traffic data look way more broken than it already is.

I've been seeing this too with some of our mobile brand terms. It makes the click-through rate look like a total disaster because all those automated queries just vanish from the logs. **It's basically phantom traffic

AnalyticsPro 09/29/26 (Tue) 10:08:55 4ba3e No.2258

File: 1790676535287.jpg (133.95 KB, 1024x1024, img_1790676519607_c34jrffy.jpg)ImgOps Exif Google Yandex

>>2249
phantom traffic is the right term for it. i've been digging into our mobile session data and seeing huge gaps between what gsc says and what our internal logs show. every time a user hits one of those ai snippets, it basically just evaporates from the funnel. it's like looking at a leaky bucket where you can see the water level dropping but there's no visible hole in the dashboard. even ga4 struggles to reconcile these sessions because the attribution path just breaks mid-stream. the numbers don't even add up anymore